In many parking situations, vehicles are parked in close proximity to each other. In these situations, the opening and closing of vehicle doors can cause accidental damage to the vehicles. In particular, damage can be caused to a vehicle's doors, when the driver or a passenger exits the vehicle, from contact with external objects. The external object can be another vehicle, parking obstacles, objects in the parking lot, and the like. In addition, accidental damage can be inflicted to external objects from the car door. This damage can occur for many reasons including; passenger mistake, a person having their hands full and being unable to catch the door before it opens fully, children that are not strong enough to bold the door, a gust of wind, the vehicle door having a movement detent that is larger than the room available for opening the door, etc.
As can be seen there are a wide variety of different reasons for incurring damage to parked vehicles. Therefore, it is difficult to provide one solution to prevent all these different causes for damage. Prior art solutions for preventing vehicle damage all involve the use of mechanical shielding to absorb the impact of the door. For example, steel edging can be installed on the edge of the door. However, this does not protect the external objects (e.g. other vehicles). In addition, plastic molding can be affixed across the face of a door to protect against hits by other vehicles. However, this does not protect the vehicles fenders and wheel wells. Other mechanical devices can be applied by the vehicle owner. However, this requires extra action and cost on behalf of the vehicle owner. Further, none of these solutions can provide complete protection over all the sides of a vehicle. Also, many of these solutions are unsightly.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a system to prevent damage by a vehicle door to the vehicle and external objects that the vehicle may be parked near. It would also be of benefit if such system was unobtrusive and required no extra action on the part of a driver or passenger.